Numerous medical devices have been developed for the delivery of therapeutic agents to the body. The desired release profile for the therapeutic agent is dependent upon the particular treatment at hand, including the specific condition being treated/prevented, the specific site of administration, the specific therapeutic agent selected, and so forth.
In accordance with certain delivery strategies, a therapeutic agent is provided beneath a polymeric barrier region or within a polymeric carrier region that is associated with an implantable or insertable medical device. Once the medical device is placed at a desired location within a patient, the polymeric region regulates the release of the therapeutic agent from the medical device. Methods are therefore needed to manipulate the release properties of such polymeric regions.